Video Game Review
Pinball Heroes: Hot Shots Golf
Playstation Portable
2009
Developer: Sony
Publisher: Sony

Pinball really isn’t a hard concept to grasp for either the player or the developer. For the player, it is all about keeping the ball in play for as long as possible. For the table designer, it is all about making the table interesting enough to keep the player interested enough to want to both keep the ball in play and play again once the ball gets lost. Pinball Heroes: Hot Shots Golf by Sony is a result of the latter being lazy and the former not giving a damn. This game is as entertaining as watching paint evaporate. Reading this review will take more of your time then the amount you’ll actually want to invest in this game.

The premise is initially interesting. Although the table looks empty, your goal is to make your way to the center of the table which is called the putting green. In the way of the green, you have obstacles blocking the entrance. These obstacles have yard numbers on them and you need to accumulate enough yards before the obstacles disappear which then allows you to approach the fairway. Each time you hit an obstacle, it counts as one stroke. The idea is that you need to sink the ball in the hole on the green within par. You get bonus points if you finish a hole below par. There are also six ‘traps’ along the sides of the table which if your ball lands there, you will be assessed penalty strokes. Each hole has their own unique conditions on the table such as magnets pulling your ball to the sides (to represent wind) and different yardage requirements. There’s also an ability to gain power shots that will increase your ‘drives’ and slots where you get bonus points for loyalty and other things.

The idea of a Hot Shots Golf themed table for the upstart Pinball Heroes franchise was an interesting concept on paper but was horribly executed. The core fundamentals of the game are broken. This is a horribly playing pinball game. It feels like you’re playing a video game more than a pinball game. The controls are not always responsive and the button placement is weird. There’s no easy way to put the ball in play and sometimes takes multiple attempts. The ball feels extremely floaty. It feels as if they got their physics from a balloon rather than a small metal ball.

If the controls were a bad dream, the visual presentation is a nightmare. The issue stems from the ability to choose to play the game holding the PSP vertically or horizontally. Vertically seems like the obvious choice because it is the only option that allows you full view of the table. However, this option handicaps the button placement. The flippers are easy enough to use, but launching a ball or pausing the game is next to impossible to execute properly. The flipper buttons are assigned to the triangle and x buttons which make sense but the pause button is still the start button so unless you are in a position where you won’t have to use the flippers for the next couple of seconds, expect to lose a ball by pausing. The analog nub acts as your launcher but it’s in such an awkward position that if the ball hits in certain places, you might not have enough time to bring your hand back to use the flippers.

The control scheme is much better when playing horizontal but it is near impossible to play it that way. The game can’t show the entire table on one screen so it needs to scroll. The problem with this is that since the PSP has little height and a lot of width, the game needs to constantly scroll and it’s way too easy to lose track of the action. Instead of pausing the game for a split second between screen scrolls (a pause so short it feels seamless but just long enough that if you watch for it, you’ll notice the slightest delay) or scroll the action screen by screen to allow the player enough time to adjust, the game screen is always scrolling which can be very disorientating. It’s crucial in pinball to being able to track the ball properly and playing the game in this format makes it next to impossible to follow.

Considering the potential for this game, it goes to show how much of a disappointment the PSP is whent they can’t even get a pinball game right on the system. There is a chance you might enjoy this title but there’s an even greater chance you might throw your PSP across the room in frustration.

☆

Parece piada, mas não é a Sony lançou oficialmente no Brasil o consome PlayStation 2! Mas espera aí, o PlayStation 2 não é o console de videogame de maior sucesso da história com mais de 138 milhões de unidades vendidas pelo o mundo, inclusive no Brasil de forma “extra-oficial”? Como assim lançar oficialmente por aqui um produto que já existe há 9 anos? Se você achou que o motivo do lançamento tardio foi para oferecer aos brasileiros um preço mais camarada, esqueça. No site da Sony o PlayStation 2 está sendo vendido por R$ 799 (ou em até 10x de R$ 91,23 com juros de 2,99 % a.m) ou cerca de US$ 470. O mesmo produto nos EUA é vendido por US$ 100…Parece brincadeira, mas é a realidade que nós vivemos: pagar 370% a mais por um produto obsoleto.

Der Analyst Martin Birkeldh, der bei der Präsentation des jüngsten Quartalsberichts bei Starbreeze anwesend war, glaubt nicht mehr, daß das kommende Jason Bourne-Videospiel bereits vor dem sagenumwobenen Project RedLime veröffentlicht werde. Vielmehr erscheint es ihm mittlerweile naheliegend, daß Project RedLime im dritten oder vierten Quartal 2010, jedoch vor Weihnachten, und damit womöglich noch vor dem Bourne-Spiel veröffentlicht wird. Der Start des vierten Bourne-Films, mit dem das Videospiel vermutlich wegen der Marketing-Synergien parallel starten soll, wurde ja wegen organisatorischer Probleme auf 2011 verschoben. Die Vermarktung für RedLime könne dann jedenfalls im ersten Quartal 2010 anlaufen. Unbestätigte aber hartnäckige Gerüchte besagen, RedLime sei Syndicate.

-Thorsten Albrecht

What else could they possibly do?

MotorStorm was the first game I ever played on a Playstation 3, it was in HMV on one of their 50 inch HD TVs and it looked amazing. Even though I kept crashing I still couldn’t stop gawping at the sheer awesomeness of the graphics and it had the essential one more go element which is missing from so many games today.

Well anyway let me give a brief recap of the MotorStorm (MS) games so far.

MotorStorm: The first game was released as part of the European launch of the PS3 on the 23^rd of March 2007 and to be honest, it was the only decent game available at launch (Resistance Fall of Man didn’t do it for me).

It wowed its crowd with a new racing mechanic in which you have to boost and if you boost too much your car will basically blow up, so if your boost gauge overheats then you better lay off, to let it cool down a bit.

Also if you even made a little mistake like hit a little rock your car would fall into pieces, you really need to be a ninja to be good at this game.

This simple way of racing made the game unique, but the developers didn’t think it was different enough to they added trucks, racing cars, buggies, bikes and so and so forth. Adding all these different types of vehicles added more strategic racing, such as which vehicle should you use for which track. It really is a trial and error racing game.

After adding the vehicles the developers said “you know, it’s still no unique enough”. And so they started making overly complicated racing courses in which each vehicle would have to take different routes to get through the track quicker. After that they slapped on some great online racing and they successfully made of the greatest racing games of all time.

They really did make a master piece and it was a solid 9/10 due to the lack of a time trial mode.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift: Released on the 7^th of November 2008 this addition to the MS series didn’t take very long to make if you compare it to when the last one was released in date terms. But it is nothing short of a AAA title, it improved every single aspect of the previous game; better graphics, rocks don’t make your car fall into pieces etc.

They were even more innovative in this game by adding a tropical setting, meaning you’re basically racing through a forest. It’s great they added loads of modes which I won’t go into because I want this mini review to be short.  Time Trial has been added though which was the main complaint from the last one. You can also take pictures of your crashes, as you guessed they made the crashes look so cool that you can now take pictures of them.

This is a amazing game and remains my most favourite racing game of all time.

10/10, I really can’t think what else they could add, they got everything right.

MotorStorm Arctic Edge: Released on the 18th of September 2009, this is the first MS game on Sony’s portable gaming device the PSP and the PS2.

This is another amazing addition to the MS series with amazing graphics that never falter, have yet to see any slow down and the online is absolutely superb.

This is also the first MS game where you get to edit what the car looks like. NO, not the paint thingy that you do on the previous 2, you get to adjust everything. YES, everything wheels and such, you get to earn different parts for your car through career points.

The game is very rewarding with a challenging career mode and the ability to take screen shots when racing. You can also play your own music while playing giving you a feel of control over the game, which is rare in games because they like to control you not the other way around.

I don’t want to give this a rating because I want to give this a full review in the future but at the moment it’s 10/10 perfection love it to bits.

The end bit

Now I bet your wondering why I just basically wrote a mini review for each MS game so far.

Well that is because I really don’t see where the developers can take the game, they have done all the main themes in their tracks, tropical, fire, ice and sand. What else could they possibly do?

I can only think of 3 things they might do in the future.

1, they will remake Arctic Edge for the PS3 with HD graphics and more tracks.

This would be a great idea, because when I play the PSP version I keep thinking to myself, “how awesome would this look on the PS3”. Everybody is thinking the same thing and so I hope they make it happen.

2, they will probably do a massive game with a combination of all the environments. As awesome as that sounds I am against it. It would destroy the theme they have set for each game where they set their games in a different setting. Putting all the different themes in one game would ruin any potential for another game.

3, they could set it in Africa, lots of scenery, mountains, desserts and animals. Can you imagine driving around a herd of Zebra? Also herds of animals would also force you to adapt to the ever changing track.

Well that’s my pitch for the future MS games and I hope they read this, I know they will make the right decision, I believe in Sony to do what is right.

OK … Now we have received a looooot of suggestions on how we should continue this game design.

Some of the most important ones include us stopping the implementation we are doing with DirectX and the DigiPen university documents and start working with real game engines and frameworks..

including using slimDirectX or XnA for Microsoft. Maybe even OpenGL & C++ for playstation and wii.

But I think we will decide how to continue because each way has its advantages over the others

like if we continue with the normal DirectX then we are mostly learning the language C#, which is a good idea because since we are mostly thinking of designing for the Xbox 360 & it is implemented using visual studios, it will provide us with a strong programming background. Although using XnA immediately will make us work on “VIDEO GAME DESIGN”. We still have other options, but we will talk about our path later

BACKGROUND

Now, in case we stick to what we are already working on I designed our simple background for the game

It’s still not in the program itself, but its ready whenever we want to use it

Una dollfie de Domadoll, en la kedada del sábado en Madrid

Anuncio de Playstation 1, por Chris Cunningham

Bueno, no hay mucho con lo que actualizar hoy asi que aqui pongo una entrada breve.

Ya tenemos disponible el blog oficial de playstation en castellano. Hacia tiempo que seguia el blog europeo, en perfecto ingles, pero siempre es mas comodo en el idioma natal no? XD.

En fin, como se nota que es lunes… nada interesante que publicar…

A si, se me olvidaba, la direccion al blog XD: http://blog.es.playstation.com/

It’s hard to come up with even the beginnings of a list of successful, high-quality video game movies and it’s more than just Uwe Boll: there seems to be a conflict between what the moviemakers think their audience wants and what viewers are actually paying to see. When Tomb Raider is considered a relative critical darling, you know the genre’s in trouble.

Which is why there’s some hope in the fact that Brad Pitt has now acquired the rights to produce a film version of the upcoming game Dark Void. Some might wonder why they should trust the actor’s choice, but his track record includes The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Departed, God Grew Tired of Us, Running with Scissors and 2010’s Kick-Ass. So if that’s any indication, look forward to Dark Void being potentially becoming a legitimately good adaptation.

Here’s a look at the game’s trailer…

For more , here’s Steven Zeitchik’s article from Yahoo News.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – “Dark Void” will yield movie development matter.

Indian giant Reliance BIG Entertainment and Brad Pitt’s Plan B shingle are developing a film version of the upcoming video game, and Pitt could well star as the lead combatant.

The two firms have acquired rights to the Capcom third-person shooter and will develop the material as a feature. The companies said the project would be a “potential starring vehicle” for Pitt. No writers have been hired yet.

“Void” centers on a cargo pilot named Will (Pitt’s presumed character) who, after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle, ends up in a parallel universe where a band of humans must fight an alien threat that had long been thought extinct. Will and the other humans are outmanned but have a number of weapons and powers to help them beat back the alien incursion.

The game will be released for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in January.

The project is the first to come out of a development partnership between Plan B and Reliance that was announced at the Cannes festival in 2008. The Indian giant has deals with a number of other Hollywood production banners, including Julia Roberts’ Red Om and George Clooney’s Smokehouse.

Video games have had a mixed record on the big screen, with title likes “Max Payne” mutating into critical and commercial flops. But executive involved in this deal pointed to the advantages a “Dark Void” movie would have over its predecessors.

“As a game, ‘Dark Void’ was developed with a wide-screen mentality — a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale,” Capcom senior vice president of licensing Germaine Gioia said.


And if you’re among the many looking to get your hands on Darv Void for your console of choice, you can find it over at Amazon.com!

Dark Void for Playstation 3
Dark Void for XBox 360
Dark Void for PC (Windows)

Sony hat vor einiger Zeit die von vielen Spielern eingeforderten “PSN-Cards” in Europa bzw. in Deutschland veröffentlicht. Das Ganze hat jedoch einen Hacken, denn die Karten, die es jeweils für 20€ und 50€ gibt, sind ab 18.
Ja, richtig gehört, das Cover, welches von niedlichen Figuren wie z.B. einem Sackboy bestückt ist, wird von einem dicken “USK 18″ geziert. So gibt es für Jugendliche, nach wie vor keine Möglichkeit, ohne Hilfe ihrer Eltern an Inhalte aus dem Playstation-Store zu kommen.

Electronic Arts was a powerhouse of great gaming during my formative gaming years. Classics such as Road Rash, Desert Strike, FIFA, the Mutant League series, PGA Tour Golf and James Pond to name a few, were always innovative and a delight to play.

But somehow over time EA became the ‘bad guy’ – the heartless corporation who were happy to churn out yearly updates of average games, often with little or no improvement.

Suddenly we had Burnout, Need For Speed, Harry Potter, SSX, the Def Jam fighting games and a host of annual sports updates. The difference being that these games (possibly excluding a few Burnout titles) were just not that great.

They started buying smaller, rival studios and created big rifts in the industry by often closing the studios down and taking their best talent.

And then all of a sudden things changed a few years ago – as well as the usual updates they announced two games which turned people’s impressions of EA on their head: Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge.

Two games which were highly polished, innovative, produced to an extremely high level… and were original ideas. Not a sequel or prequal – or even a film tie in. Just cleverly made great games.

Now I’m the first to admit that maybe Mirror’s Edge had it’s faults but that isn’t the issue here – what I’m talking about is EA’s willingness to take a shot at launching a new brand, based on something no-one had tried before.

Brutal Legend is another fine example – while the game appears to have tanked at retail, which is a shame, EA backed it all the way with marketing and promo. Not all of their new ideas come off so to speak.

The other shift was that the year updates, sporting especially, got good again. The Fight Night series was a serious return to form, culminating in Round 4’s superb simulation of the sport. Likewise FIFA – which has now overtaken long standing champion PES as the best football game around.

With Rock Band they are looking to take on Activision (the new ‘bad guys’ apparently) and Guitar Hero, a battle which will rage for years to come.

The standard of games forthcoming as well looks really positive with Army Of Two: 40th Day, Dante’s Inferno, Mass Effect 2 (not for us PS3 folks… yet ) and Battlefield Bad Company 2 (the Beta of which is truly stunning) all arriving in the first quarter of 2010!

When I think back to 5 or 6 years ago it seems insane that EA of all people would be pushing the envelope and delivering top quality, fresh and innovative titles – long may it continue!

A Sony tem planos para implementar a tecnologia 3D na PS3. Agora foi confirmado, através de Kaz Hirai, CEO da Sony Computer Entertainment, que irá ser adicionada uma subscrição Premium à Playstation Network.

Como sabem, uma das grandes vantagens do serviço online da PS3 é este ser gratuito mas como devem ter vindo a notar, nestes últimos tempos tem sido adicionado conteúdo Premium como temas dinâmicos.

Kaz Hirai afirmou agora que a Sony pretende adicionar uma subscrição Premium à Playstation Network, em que o utilizador irá ter acesso a conteúdo que de outra forma não iria poder ter (muito semelhante à subscrição Silver e Gold da Xbox360).

Contudo, o serviço Playstation Network, irá continuar a ser gratuito apesar de ainda não se saber muitos detalhes nem como o serviço Premium irá afectar a oferta actual da Playstation Network. De frisar que este serviço mesmo sendo gratuito, prevê-se que vá dar à Sony cerca de 563 Milhões de dólares até ao final deste ano fiscal (termina de 31 de Março de 2010).

Da har jeg bestemt meg hvordan mitt eventuelle jule tre skal se ut i år, og det blir definitivt KULERE ENN DITT!

Each set comes with 7 ornaments, including 2-dimensional cutout versions of Wii, N64, Xbox 360, Dreamcast, NES, PS2 and Sega Genesis controllers. The ornaments each measure between 3 and 4 inches wide, so they’re a bit smaller than the real deals.

They’re available in 6 colors, including red, white, yellow, black, clear, and red-tinted acrylic, and can be found over at Digits’ Ponoko or Etsy shops for just $20 bucks a set.

Kult eller total nerdete det feteste som noengang har blitt laget innen julepynt? I’m in!
Noen burde lage slike av konsoller, med mulighet for lys inni, så kan man freshe opp julebordet med en “Candellight 360″ eller evt. “Wii Christmas” (gud jeg håper det spillet ikke kommer ut!)

[etsy]

Via

[Geekologie]

Kaizer

Roundtable Podcast #3 – The Problem With 10 Year Plans: Playstation 3 
<24 mins (11.0 MB)> – (November 22, 2009)

Join myself and Chris Karpyszyn and we look at Sony’s biggest piece of hardware (disaster) in the last while, Playstation 3. Our big issue is whether or not it was good idea for Sony to abandon the wildly popular Playstation 2 for a an overpriced system that apparently does everything. Did Blu-Ray help or harm the system’s potential?

We’ll be recording our fourth Roundtable next Sunday. We’ll be talking about the Xbox 360 and it’s notorious Red Ring of Death with the major question being: why hasn’t the Red Ring of Death killed the Xbox 360? If you have any questions or comments you want to send for us to discuss during the recording, send the messages to madnessbrewing@gmail.com

Final Fantasy VII, in my opinion, is one of the best games ever made.  For its time, the graphics rocked.  The storyline kept you hunting for answers with great twists.  I’m sad to admit, however, that the game became an obsession for me.  Looking back, I can see how it helped me escape reality and how that became addictive.  It came at a time where I needed to face reality and God and make my faith real.  I was participating in the first in-depth Bible study of my life.  There were times where I had to consciously make the decision to go read my Bible.  At the time, reading the Old Testament in my study seemed rather dull and boring compared to the vivid storyline of FFVII, which I’d consider to be more of a visual and interactive book rather than a video game.  The plot of FFVII has its redemptive value which I hope to write about more at a later time.  Video games are not bad in and of themselves, but in my specific case, they took a negative turn because it took God’s place in my priorities, thoughts, and heart.

I remember when there were commercials on tv for FFVII.  My entire focus became immediately glued to the tv screen every time I as much as thought I heard the music.  I still remember it pretty well.  An announcer described the daring feats, brutal combat, insurmountable odds, “a love that could never be” (that always got me!), and dashing honor you will encounter as you play.  He said something about how you must save the world!  Everyone is counting on you!  And if you fail…  “you can always hit the reset button.”

Wouldn’t it be great if we had one of those?  Ah, to have a reset button!

“Oh man, I shouldn’t have said that!  Let’s reset.”

“Wow!  I can’t believe I did THAT!  I’ll just reset.”

“Now things will never be the same …unless I don’t save today.”

Nope.  We have no such option.  This life is the only shot we have.  We can’t go back even a few seconds to undo anything.  In fact, you’d be surprised to realize how little control you have over your life.  The only control you have is over what you say and do at this exact moment in time.  Sure, you can plan, promise, and make provisions for the future.  Those endeavors can even be wise, keeping in mind that God’s plans stand more firm.  The fact is that the only thing you can change is now.

What shall this sobering reality mean for us then?  That we have to make sure we do everything perfectly and in perfect timing?  No.  Like I said, you’d be surprised at how much you can’t control.  We live in a fallen world and we’ll be blindsided by circumstances we never could have prevented.  I don’t mean for us to become obsessed about every second on the clock, but I do mean for us to consider how much we are allowing ourselves to be taken by mediocrity.  How many Godly things have we put off to do later?  How many times have we tried to do something to better ourselves but haven’t taken the time to complete them?  How much time do we waste doing things that will count for nothing when this life is over?  In essence, how many times have we said to the Lord, “not now.”

Perhaps we fool ourselves thinking our “not now” approach isn’t so bad because it’s not telling the Lord “no.”  We have the intention to do what He’s asked of us.  After all, doesn’t He look at the heart anyway?  If we’re going to lean on that idea, we better take a good, hard look at our hearts.  Do we really want to do that thing for the Lord?  Do we truly desire that as deeply as God desires it?  If not, this message is for you.  Stop putting God off.  No more of this “I can’t do that now, Lord” attitude!  Even if you know you’re not ready for the tasks, He knows your faults and His power is made perfect in weakness.  He will do amazing things with your surrendered heart if you desire Him above all other things.

If your heart is indeed in line with God’s desires and His plan, please don’t let this message freak you out and make you rush God’s timing. Perhaps He is asking you to wait.  But if He’s waiting on you, you may have a problem.  I just ask that we take the time to question ourselves to see if He’s pushing us and whether or not we’re budging.

Consider today.  This is the only today you have.  What have you not done that you need to do?  Be advised – you have no reset button.

Whenever a game console comes out nowadays, it has DVD playback or HD graphics.
What ever happened to the good old days, where you put a game into the console and simply play it.

Recently I found a post and on it said that someone said to Wii owners to “get a real console.”
So I decided it was time to post this.

Whenever you buy a new console you always look for the best graphics, the most abilities, and of course the one that plays your favorite game series.

Graphics, DVD Playback, Mobile Devices Compatibility, Favorite Game Series – Links Not Available Yet